So you're going on vacation soon and you don't really want to spend your hard earned cash on apps before your journey. How about some free apps -- and a nifty new, helpful service from Google -- to get you all squared off for your trip? This week's Free App Friday features Google's new "What's Around Here?" Labs plug-in, free audiobooks for the plane ride there, an airport map archive for your iPhone and an app that let's you see what your pilot's seeing!
Google Maps "What's Around Here?"
I'm going somewhere I've never been before, and instead of spending gobs of cash on Lonely Planet travel guides that will be simply moot after my five days are up, Google's got a really handy "What's Around Here?" Labs plug-in that you can enable from the Maps preferences. The plug-in drops pins on various locations, restaurants, monuments and buildings and briefly explains what it is, as well as offers a link to the site (if there is one). Some of the locations are crowd-sourced by other Labs users, and contain Wiki'd information of anyone who felt like contributing.
Eleven hours is a really long time to fly. Break free from the monotony and listen to an audio book instead! Sometimes they're so soothing they'll actually help put you to sleep, too. And then you start dreaming about the book itself, which is way cooler. You can get these free audio books from LibriVox, because they're public domain and read by narrators who don't frequently have guest spots on This American Life -- we're not always in the mood for Ira Glass, after all.
My favorite thing about LibriVox? The foreign language audio books! Between Romanian and Spanish, I can't get enough of this. It helps me practice my broken grammar in either dialect, too.
Because you wouldn't fly "dumb", right? Flysmart gives you airport data, arrival times and every piece of essential information for flying domestically (Sorry, international jetsetters).
ForeFlight Mobile HD
ForeFlight Mobile HD is used by pilots for flight planning, aviation weather and flight support. If you're the type to freak out over flying, then you can calm yourself by seeing what the pilots see with this app. While it won't work in the air without a Wi-Fi hookup, it can give you some amazing knowledge about what's going on in the air with you.
